Buying in Paphos vs the UK: costs and taxes

Cyprus charges you modestly to buy and almost nothing to own. Back in the UK it's the other way round, and owning a Paphos villa can make your next UK purchase noticeably dearer.

The short version

Buying a resale in Paphos costs Land Registry transfer fees of 3% to 8% in bands, halved when no VAT is charged. On a EUR 360,000 (about £300,000) resale that's about EUR 11,000 (about £9,200) [8].
Cyprus abolished stamp duty from 1 January 2026, and immovable property tax went back in 2017 [8][9].
Back home, stamp duty can bite hard. A £300,000 house in England costs a non-resident £11,000 in SDLT, or £26,000 if you keep the Paphos place, because owning a home anywhere in the world triggers the higher rates [1][2].
Selling: Cyprus taxes gains on Cypriot property at 20%, with lifetime exemptions raised from 2026 [9][10]. Sell a UK home as a non-resident and you file a 60-day return, even with no tax to pay [5].
The 2018 UK–Cyprus double taxation convention stops most of the same gain being taxed twice [7].

Pound conversions use the Bank of England spot rate of 5 November 2026 (£1 = EUR 1.20).

What a Brit can buy in Paphos, compared

Back home, nobody asks for your passport before you buy a semi in Swindon. Anyone can buy in England and Wales, and most houses are freehold while most flats are leasehold, with a lease that ticks down and a freeholder who sends the service charge bills.

In Cyprus, Brits have bought as non-EU nationals since Brexit. That means permission from the District Administration on form COMM 145, usually limited to two units (two homes, or a home and a small shop or office) or a plot of up to 4,000 m² to build on. Our guide to buying in Paphos and the title deeds problem covers the permission, the checks and why so many British buyers ended up paying in full without getting their deeds.

Ownership itself is closer to freehold than leasehold. A flat or a villa on a complex comes with a separate title deed once the development has its final approval, plus a share of the common areas and a management committee that collects communal fees. The deeds are the part to obsess over. In England the Land Registry moves the title on completion day. In Paphos, a contract deposited at the Lands Office is your main protection until the deed is in your name.

Upfront costs side by side

Here's a resale in Paphos set against the same money spent in England. Rates are as of November 2026.

	Paphos resale, EUR 360,000 (about £300,000)	England, £300,000
Main purchase tax	Lands Office transfer fees: 3% to EUR 85,000, 5% to EUR 170,000, 8% above, halved when no VAT is charged [8]	SDLT: 0% to £125,000, 2% to £250,000, 5% above [1]
On this price	About EUR 11,000 (about £9,200)	£5,000 if you're UK resident and it's your only home [1]
Foreign-buyer extra	None, but you need permission to buy	2% surcharge if you're non-resident: £11,000 in total [1][2]
Owning another home	No surcharge	Higher rates (5% on top) if you own residential property worth £40,000 or more anywhere: £20,000, or £26,000 non-resident [1][2]
Stamp duty	Abolished from 1 January 2026 [9]	Not applicable
VAT	New builds: 19%, or 5% on part of a qualifying main home; no transfer fees then [8][9]	No VAT on homes

The new-build twist. If you buy new from a developer, VAT replaces transfer fees. A buyer making it their main home for ten years can get the 5% rate on the first 130 m², where the home is worth up to EUR 350,000 (about £291,600), the deal is no more than EUR 475,000 (about £395,800) and the total buildable area is no more than 190 m² [9]. Anything outside those lines pays 19%, usually built into the asking price.

The UK twist. HMRC's test for the higher rates looks at homes you own anywhere in the world [2]. So the Brit who keeps a Paphos villa and buys a flat in Bristol pays the 5% extra, and the 2% non-resident surcharge on top if they haven't spent 183 days in the UK in the year before buying. On £300,000 that's £26,000 against £5,000 for a resident first-and-only home: a difference you'd notice even after a decent Cyprus summer.

Scotland and Wales do it differently. Neither has a non-resident surcharge. Scotland adds an Additional Dwelling Supplement of 8% of the whole price for contracts from 5 December 2024, so £24,000 on a £300,000 home on top of LBTT [3]. Wales's higher residential rates, from 11 December 2024, start at 5% up to £180,000 and come to £19,950 on £300,000 [4].

Add lawyers on both sides: your own independent lawyer in Cyprus, and a solicitor or conveyancer in the UK, who files the SDLT return within 14 days of completion.

Financing: Cypriot bank or UK lender?

In Cyprus, banks lend within loan-to-value limits set by the Central Bank of Cyprus, with a tighter cap for homes that won't be your main residence. In practice, Cypriot banks tend to ask non-residents and newcomers for a bigger deposit, local income or a long paper trail, and many British buyers in Paphos pay cash from a UK sale. A euro loan repaid from a UK pension also leaves you exposed to the exchange rate every month.

Back home, a UK mortgage while you live abroad is possible but the high street often says no. Expect a narrower choice of specialist lenders, a bigger deposit, and lender checks on income paid in euros. Our guide to UK mortgages for Brits living abroad explains the foreign currency loan rules and what lenders ask for. UK lenders won't normally lend against a Cyprus property, so a remortgage of a UK home is the usual way people borrow in pounds to buy in Paphos. That needs regulated mortgage advice.

Owning it: property tax and running costs

In Paphos, the annual tax bill is pleasingly small. Immovable property tax was abolished from 1 January 2017 [8]. What you pay instead is local: refuse and sewerage charges to the municipality or community, and communal fees on a complex for the pool, gardens and lighting. Ask the seller for the last few years' receipts, because the Lands Office wants municipal and water charges paid up before it transfers the deed.

Back home, council tax is the big one, and it isn't small. A UK house you keep empty as a second home can cost more than a home you live in: councils in England have been able to charge a second homes premium since April 2025, and Welsh councils can add premiums of their own. Check with the council before you assume the bill.

Letting the UK home. If you live in Paphos and let out your UK house, the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme applies. Your letting agent, or a tenant paying more than £100 a week, must take basic rate tax off the rent and pay it to HMRC each quarter, unless HMRC has approved you to receive it gross [6]. You apply on form NRL1 and you still file a Self Assessment return. See renting out your UK home.

Tax when you sell

The Cyprus side

Capital gains tax of 20% applies to gains on property in Cyprus, worked out on the sale price less the original cost and improvements, adjusted for Cypriot inflation [9].
Lifetime exemptions went up from 2026: EUR 150,000 (about £125,000) on a main residence you've lived in, from EUR 85,430, and EUR 30,000 (about £25,000) on other disposals, from EUR 17,086 [10]. They're lifetime totals, not yearly, and a lawyer can confirm which applies to you.
Cyprus only taxes gains on Cypriot property. If you're living in Paphos and sell a house in Leeds, Cyprus capital gains tax doesn't normally reach it [9].

The UK side

Selling your UK home as a Cyprus resident. Non-residents pay UK capital gains tax on UK property. You must report the sale online within 60 days of completion and pay any tax in the same window, even if there's nothing to pay or you made a loss [5]. For homes owned before April 2015, usually only the growth since 5 April 2015 counts. Private residence relief can still cover the years you lived there, though a 90-day rule limits it while you're abroad.
Selling the Paphos home after moving back. A UK resident pays UK capital gains tax on a gain abroad, at 18% or 24% for 2026/27, with a £3,000 annual exempt amount [1]. The gain is measured in pounds, so the euro rate on the day you bought and the day you sold both matter.
The double taxation convention. Under the 2018 UK–Cyprus convention, Cyprus can tax gains on Cypriot property first, and the UK gives credit for Cyprus tax against UK tax on the same gain [7].
Private residence relief can apply to a home abroad that was genuinely your main residence. The rules on absences and day counts are fiddly, and a tax adviser who knows both countries can check your case.

Our selling UK property as a non-resident guide walks through the 60-day return step by step.

Which makes sense for whom

Retiring to Paphos for good. Buying can make sense: low running costs, no annual property tax and a big lifetime exemption on a main home. Spend your money on the lawyer and the deed checks, not the sea view upgrade.
Testing the water for a year or two. Renting avoids transfer fees, permission paperwork and the title deeds lottery. See renting in Paphos.
Keeping the UK house and letting it. Get your NRL1 approved before you go, and remember a Paphos home will push any future UK purchase onto the higher SDLT rates until you sell one of them.
Planning to move back. If you'll be UK resident when you buy back home, the 2% surcharge doesn't apply, and selling the Paphos villa first can save the 5% too. HMRC lets you reclaim the higher rates if you sell your previous main home within three years of buying [2].

Plenty of people in our community group for Brits in Cyprus have bought in Paphos, and some have sold up and bought again in Blighty.

Buying in Paphos vs back home: transfer fees, title deeds and the taxman